Camping Outdoorsy Birthday Cake

Gloria was throwing an awesome 70th birthday bash for Jeff and wanted to have a cake that reflected him and his hobbies. He loves fly fishing, camping, and flying model airplanes. How do make that into one cake? Just like this :) The cake was Turtle Power Cake and then vanilla cake (Check out my full flavor list at www.SaltCakeCity.com). It was covered in marshmallow fondant and then the water/lake scene was all buttercream. I made little rocks, fish, reeds, and a fishing tool kit out of fondant to complete the fishing scene and then I made the tent, little boots and a campfire on the top of the cake for his camping hobby and lastly added a model airplane flying off the side of the cake too. I LOVED making this cake. I love when there are little details in the cake that make it so special. Everyone at the party loved the cake and seeing their excitement just made it even better :)

Let's Talk Groom's Cakes!

 I love when brides surprise their new hubbies with groom's cakes totally tailored to their likings. It's SO much fun to match a very elegant wedding cake with a much less elegant, and oftentimes explanation-less cake that even I don't understand! haha... don't worry, we'll get there. 

First up is this golf groom's cake. There was a very long discussion at the cake tasting on making a unique groom's cake rather than the same-ol-golfer on top of an argyle cake. I LOVED making this cake because it really was just one giant brainstorming session on making this cake totally different. Maren & her lovely mother, Betsy, helped come up great ideas, sketch ideas, colors, design, etc. for this lil' guy (actually, it was a huge cake :) The cake had red rocks on the backside along with a sand trap (made of brown sugar and graham crackers) and a water hazard. Oh, so much fun!

Next up we have a Minnesota Vikings Football groom's cake. ShiAnne wanted another unique groom's cake idea, not just the normal football shaped cake. We went with a topsy turvy design covered in marshmallow fondant with edible sugar balls coming out of the cake. Again...So... Much... Fun!

 Now we have a cake that needs some explanation. Do I know what this is? Not really... haha. If you're a Star Wars mega-fan you might recognize this as a Slave One. Yup, otherwise to the rest of you, google Slave One and you'll see what I was going for :) This really was quite a challenge because the whole thing was edible so I had to structure it correctly to have the top part hanging out of the top but not sag or fall over. I hand painted the colors on here to get them as close as possible to the Slave One I was going after. Ah... this was a challenge indeed but I do appreciate the challenge... thank you, KiElys!

Next up is a snowmobile. Katie wanted to display her hubby's favorite snowmobile all out of cake. This cake was covered in marshmallow fondant and again, hand-painted to get the right colors for the exact snowmobile I was going for. The windshield was exceptionally difficult to get to stand up correctly but worked out in the end :)

Lastly, we have an Adidas shoe groom's cake. The bride wanted to surprise the groom (and we went to great lengths to hide this puppy until after the wedding) with this all cake shoe covered in marshmallow fondant. Yup, I hand painted the stripes and logo on here after putting the right grooves in the front of the shoe and after adding the laces. It's funny to recreate something real because I want it to be as exact as possible while still looking edible. Loved making this shoe! Thank you, Danielle, for allowing me to make such a fun groom's cake for your hubby!

Texas Longhorn Cupcakes

Camille works for Brian, who received Mickey Mouse Cupcakes from Honey a while back, and she got to try a few of the cupcakes since Brian couldn't eat that many cupcakes himself :) So then Camille ordered cupcakes for Jacob with his favorite team's colors. Can you guess it? Yup! Texas Longhorns! Half of the cupcakes were chocolate and half were vanilla all topped with buttercream. I topped some of the cupcakes with marshmallow fondant toppers with "Texas," "T," and the longhorn logo on them. I printed out the longhorns logo and then hand cut the fondant to make sure they looked right. So simple but so fun! :)

Snow Mobile Cake

Breanna wanted a snow mobile cake for Winston's 7th birthday since that's the hobby he loves the most right now. I wanted to reflect the mountains here in Utah along with his snow mobile on the top. I made the snow mobile out of fondant, then painted the colors on with edible food coloring. The wooden sign was made out of fondant as well. I marbleized brown and white fondant together, let it dry and then wrote "Happy 7th Birthday Winston" on it. I made a few trees in the background with coconut and crystalized sugar "snow." I had so much fun making this cake because of all of the details of the snow mobile and winter scene, especially since we were in spring :)

Dual Sports Birthday

Dominique was having a joint birthday party for Nick and Nico again this year. Last year, I made the boys a sports themed cake that was three tiers and had a baseball, basketball and football for each tier. This year, I went a different route because I wanted to keep it unique and fun for them. The basketball and baseball were made out of rice krispies covered in homemade marshmallow fondant. The basketball net and the baseball field were the cakes. The cakes were Cookies & Cake (vanilla cake layered with crushed Oreos and buttercream). The cake doesn't look as big here but it was pretty big and heavy. I get such a work out with some of these cakes :) haha

Soccer Birthday

Carol wanted to get Matthew a unique birthday cake for his 16th birthday (not sweet 16, but rather a soccer 16 birthday). I remember telling her that it's not as easy as it sounds to make a soccer themed cake that doesn't look like a child's party cake. I came up with this design to incorporate Matthew's school colors, red and gold, along with his soccer jersey. Making a completely edible soccer net was quite the challenge. Fondant likes to lay flat to I had to dry it against a curved object that it wouldn't stick to. Four nets later, this one worked :) It's hard to see in this picture but it's on the top there with the fondant 16.

The cake was an Orange Dreamsicle Cake (orange cake layered with orange cream filling and buttercream) covered in homemade marshmallow fondant. Carol and Matthew were so excited when I delivered the cake while I apologized the whole time about it still looking childish to me. Haha... I'm such a perfectionist. They both loved it and so I just have to get over it. :)